List of top English Language Comprehension Questions

Read the given passage and answer the question that follows:
Biological classification of plants and animals was first proposed by Aristotle on the basis of simple morphological characters. Linnaeus later classified all living organisms into two kingdoms- Plantae and Animalia. Whittaker proposed an claborate five kingdom classification- Monera, Protista, Fungi, Plantae and Animalia. The main criteria of the five kingdom classification were cell structure, body organisation, mode of nutrition and reproduction. and phylogenetic relationships. 
In the five kingdom classification. bacteria are included in Kingdom Monera. Bacteria are cosmopolitan in distribution. These organisms show the most extensive metabolic diversity. Bacteria may be autotrophic or heterotrophic in their mode of nutrition. Kingdom Protista includes all single-celled eukaryotes such as Chrysophytes. Dinoflagellates. Euglenoids. Slime-moulds and Protozoans. Protists have defined nucleus and other membrane bound organelles. They reproduce both asexually and sexually. Members of Kingdom Fungi show a great diversity in structures and habitat. Most Fungi are saprophytic in their mode of nutrition. They show asexual and sexual reproduction. Phycomycetes. Ascomycetes. Basidiomycetes and Deuteromycetes are the four classes under this kingdom. The plantae includes all eukaryotic chlorophyll-containing organisms. Algae. bryophytes. pteridophytes. gymnosperms and angiosperms are included in this group. The life cycle of plants exhibit alternation of generations- gametophytic and sporophytic generations. The heterotrophic eukaryotic, multicellular organisms lacking a cell wall are included in the kingdom Animalia. The mode of nutrition of these organisms is holozoic. They reproduce mostly by the sexual mode. Some acellular organisms like viruses and viroids as well as the lichens are not included in the five kingdom system of classification.
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Who decides which constituency is to be reserved? On what basis is this decision taken? This decision is taken by an independent body called the Delimitation Commission. The Delimitation Commission  is appointed by the President of India and works in collaboration with the Election Commission of India. It is appointed for the purpose of drawing up the boundaries of constituencies all over the country. A quota of constituencies to be reserved in each State is f ixed depending on the proportion of SC or ST in that State. After drawing the boundaries. the Delimitation Commission looks at the composition of population in each constituency. Those constituencies that have the highest proportion of Scheduled Tribe population are reserved for ST. In the case of Scheduled Castes, the Delimitation Commission looks at two things. It picks constituencies that have higher proportion of Scheduled Caste population. But it also spreads these constituencies in different regions of the State. This is done because the Scheduled Caste population is generally spread evenly throughout the country. These reserved constituencies can be rotated each time the Delimitation exercise is undertaken
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Drug major Novartis is planning to divest its Indian eyecare portfolio to Mumbaibased JB Chemicals, in a deal estimated to be around ¥ 1.000 crore. The Novartis spin-off will join the list of several MNCs pruning their drug portfolios and reducing exposure to the Indian market, due to multiple reasons. including increased competition and tough business environment. Sources say the move fits well with the MNC’s strategy to capitalize its ophthalmic therapy, while for JB Chemicals it will offer an entry into a growing business segment.
Over last few months, global Big Pharma have been divesting their branded generic portfolio to domestic companies and rationalizing their portfolio by selling off key assets. Further, large Indian players are doubling down on India as an attractive diversification from a USgenerics market beaten up heavily by price erosion. As a consequence, several deals were inked where Indian companies snapped up high-growth brands from MNCs and local sellers at attractive valuations. The deal is expected to be announced over the next few days. Emails sent across to Novartis and JB Chemicals did not elicit a response. Ageing population and increasing access to eyecare. especially in emerging markets, is a strong growth opportunity for drug companies. The demand for eyecare is expected to increase significantly as people spend more time in front of tablets and mobile devices. Sources added that existing eyecare portfolio in India of Novartis is understood to be around Z 400-500 crore. including certain brands transferred from eyecare biggie Alcon. when it was spun off from Novartis. In 2019 under a global restructuring move, Novartis had spun off Alcon into a standalone business to focus on its core area of pharmaceuticals. Alcon is a global leader in eyecare, offering solutions to issues like cataracts, glaucoma., retinal diseases and refractive errors. 
The stock market seems to have got a wind of the potential deal. Over the last few days. scrips of both Novartis India and JB Chem have witnessed a spurt. On December 7, JB Chem traded on a new 52-week high at Z 1555, while Novartis India stock closed Z 706 on Friday. Further. Novartis had last year announced the transfer of sales & distribution of a few of its established medicines, including the Voveran and Calcium range to Dr.Reddy’s.
Read the given passage and answer the questions that follow:
Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) reported weak growth through HIFY24 but it witnessed a boost in embedded value (EV) due to equity market performance. But concerns regarding its stock include loss of market share as it is outpaced by private sector rivals. sticky operating expenses (reduced slightly yearon-year but up in Q2FY24 versus Q1FY24). and high sensitivity of embedded value to equity volatility. 
Traders may also factor in the likelthood of another stake sale by the Government of India. These concerns are reflected in valuations. LIC trades at a big discount in price/EV terms (less than 1x) compared to private sector rivals (mostly 3x or more). Growth is healthy on a sequential basis but weak on a Y-0-Y basis. The individual annualized premium equivalent (APE) in HIF’Y24 was flat Y-0-Y at Z 14,640 crore, whereas the group APE was down by 24.5 percent Y-0-Y to Z 7.990 crore. Policies that provide policyholders a share of the insurance company’s profits as an annual dividend payout are also called par or with-profit policies. 
The VNB (value of new business) margin was flat on a Y-0-Y basis despite the rise in share of non-par business. which is margin positive. The VNB margin for HIFY24 was 14.61 percent against 14.58 percent in HIFY23. Though the rise in share of non-par products had a positive impact on the VNB margin. more benefits were given to policyholders, particularly for annuity. which pulled margins down again. 
The product mix shift to non-par should push the VNB margin up in the long-term. But competitive intensity meant product pricing had to be low-margin and more benefits were offered to policyholders. The annuity rates have also been increased. The overall APE dropped 10.3 percent over the past year to ¥ 22.630 crore. The individual business accounted for 64.7 percent of the APE. The individual APE was flat Y-o-Y, whereas the group business dropped 24.5 percent. 
The solvency ratio is adequate. and the movement to non-par is positive for margins. But further loss of market share would occur unless LIC pushes up growth rates to match rivals. It’s hard to estimate EV trends. Valuations are cheap which leaves room for some upside.
Read the given passage and answer the questions that follow
India didn’t sign the Global Renewables and Energy Efficiency Pledge that aims to triple global renewable energy capacity and double the rate of energy efficiency by 2030. That’s despite having successfully ensured a commitment to the aspiration by the G20 in the New Delhi Leaders’ Declaration. 
India has a domestic target of increasing its renewable energy capacity to 450GW from its current level of 130GW by 2030. 
New Delhi’s absence from the list of 118 countries that joined the pledge came as something of a surprise. Prime Minister Narendra Modi had highlighted India’s role as G20 president in securing the agreement on renewable energy capacity and energy efficiency. All the G20 countries- barring India, China and Russia- have signed on to the pledge launched on Saturday by COP28 president Sultan Al Jaber. The pledge seeks to triple global installed renewable energy capacity to at least 11,000GW and double the global energy efficiency improvement rate to more than 4% by 2030. 
As G20 president. India had pushed for the adoption of a numerical target for the tripling of renewable energy. without much success. ”What is interesting is that as the G20 presidency. India pushed for not just the idea of tripling renewable energy capacities but also attempted to set a target. 11.000 GW by 2030. In its efforts. India was supported by only the European Union (EU) and its member states. ” said a senior delegate privy to G20 negotiations on energy. 
India’s decision not to join the pledge can likely be attributed to the focus on coal and investments in it.
Read the given passage and answer the questions that follow 
Warning of a potential catastrophe in the Himalayas where the glaciers are melting at an alarming rate, UN chief Antonio Guterres on Saturday said the ongoing annual climate talks must respond to the needs of the developing nations, especially the vulnerable mountain countries that need urgent help. 
Almost 240 million people depend on the glaciers and 10 major rivers, such as Indus, Ganga and Brahmaputra, originate in the Himalayas. Another billion people living downstream of these rivers across eight countries, including India. are also dependent on the glacier-fed rivers. 
Addressing a meeting with mountain countries at this year’s Conference of Parties (COP28), UNSecretary-General Gutterrs emphasized that nearly a third of Nepal’s ice had vanished in just over 30 years, and it was directly linked to greenhouse gas pollution that heats up the planet. 
Guterres.who visited Nepal. including the Everest region. in October last week. called for developed countries to clarify the delivery of \(\$\)100 billion and produce a plan to double adaptation finance to \(\$\)40 billion a year by 2025. ”But those sums are dwarfed by the scale of what’s needed’ he said and advocated for reform in International Financial Institutions (IFIs) and Multilateral Development Banks (MDBs) to better cater to the needs of developing countries like Nepal. 
”So, we need the outcome of this COP to call for reform of the IFIs so that they reflect today’s world and are far more responsive to the needs of developing countries and for reform of the business models of the MDBs so that they can leverage far more private finance at reasonable cost to the developing countries”, he said. ”Unless there is a change in course. a catastrophe can be unleashed. The glaciers could disappear altogether. That means massively reduced flows for major Himalayan rivers,” he said.
Read the given passage and answer the questions that follow
TV broadcasters and streaming platforms are concerned about the potential impact on their creative freedom from the ministry of information and’ broadcasting’s (MIB) proposed legislation that would require them to get content certified by an evaluation committee before broadcasting it. 
As part of its three-tier regulatory mechanism to regulate broadcasting content. the ministry has proposed that each broadcaster and broadcasting network operator should set up content evaluation committees (CECs) and only those programmes certified by CEC’s should be broadcast. 
The committee’s members would include eminent individuals representing different social groups, including women. child welfare. scheduled castes. scheduled tribes, and minorities. The central government may specify the number of members in the panel. the quorum required. and other details to assist the establishment and smooth operation of CEC. The proposal would not only impact creative freedom of the broadcasters and OTT platforms but also push up costs and may even prove unfeasible considering the amount of content created, industry experts said.
TMT Law Practice managing partner Abhishek Malhotra said the creative judgment of broadcasters and OTT platforms will be subjected to another review, which may not be acceptable to content creators. 
” There will also be an issue of sharing content before it’s proposed for public release-fear of disclosure,” he said. An MIB official. on condition of anonymity, said the ministry wants to strengthen self-regulation through this move. adding that the broadcasters will have freedom in running the CECs. 
Industry experts called it a misnomer. While the CEC will be set up by the broadcasting companies, it will be as per the prescription of the central government, noted Siddharth Chopra. M&E practice lead advocate at Saikrishna & Associates. ”This. to my mind. makes self-regulation a non-starter.” he said. terming CECs as mini-certification boards. The obligation of setting up CECs will apply to TV channels such as Star Plus, Colors. Zee TV, and Sony Entertainment Television (SET). streaming platforms such as Netflix. Amazon Prime Video, Disney + Hotstar. and JioCinema, and platform services provided by operators such as Tata Play. Dish TV. and Hathway Digital.
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Somehow, Ramdas Korwa of Rachketha village was not overjoyed to learn that he was worth RS 17.44 lakh to the government. Late in 1993, the authorities decided to lay a three km road leading to Rachketha village in the name of tribal development by allocating rs 17.44 lakh towards the project. 
Tribals constitute a 55 per cent majority in Surguja, one of India’s poorest districts. And the Pahadi or Hill Korwas. who have been listed as a primitive tribe by the government, fall in the bottom 5 per cent. Special efforts are underway for their development which often involves large sums of money. Just one centrally funded scheme, the Pahadi Korwa project. is worth RS 42 crores over a five-year period. There are around 15.000 Pahadi Krowas. the largest number of these in Surguja. However. for political reasons. the main base of the project is in Raigad district. There was just one small problem about building the Pahadi Korwa Marg in Rachketha-the village is almost completely devoid of Pahadi Korwas. Ramdas’s family is the only real 23 exception. 
’It doesn’t matter if these don’t benefit the Pahadi Krowas in the least and are completely useless. Out here. even if you put up a swimming pool and a bungalow. you do it in the name of tribal development.’ says an NGO activist. ”Nobody bothered to check whether there were really any Pahadi Korwas living in Rachketha village’ and ’there was already a kutcha road here.’ says Ramavatar Korwa, son of Ramdas. ’They just added lal mitti (red carth) to it. Even today. after spending rs 17.44 lakh, it is not a pucca road.
’ Ramdas’s own demands are touchingly simple. ’All I want is a little water.’ he says. ’How can we have agriculture without water?’ When repeatedly pressed. he adds: ’Instead of spending rs 17.44 lakh on that road. if they had spent a few thousand on improving that damaged well on my land. wouldn’t that have been better? Some improvement in the land is also necessary. but let them start by giving us a little water.’ Ramdas’s problems were ignored. The government’s problem was ’fulfilling a target.’ ’If the money were simply put into bank fixed deposits. none of these Pahadi Korwa families would ever have to work again. The interest alone would make them very well off by Surguja’s standards.’ says an official mockingly. 
Nobody thought of asking Ramdas what he really needed. what his problems were or involving him in their solution. Instead. in his name. they built a road he does not use. at a cost of rs 17.44 lakh. ’Please do something about my water problem, sir.’ says Ramdas Korwa as we set off across the plain, journeying two kilometres to reach his road nowhere.
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Under the colonial regime, basic infrastructure such as railways, ports, water transport. posts and telegraphs did develop. However. the real motive behind this development was not to provide basic amenities to the people but to subserve various colonial interests. Roads constructed in India prior to the advent of the British rule were not fit for modern transport. The roads that were built primarily served the purposes of mobilising the army within India and drawing out raw materials from the countryside to the nearest railway station or the port to send these to far away England or other lucrative foreign destinations. There always remained an acute shortage of all-weather roads to reach out to the rural areas during the rainy season. 
Naturally. therefore, people mostly living in these areas suffered grievously during natural calamities and famines. The British introduced the railways in India in 1850 and it is considered as one of their most important contributions. The railways affected the structure of the Indian economy in two important ways. On the one hand it enabled people to undertake long distance travel and thereby break geographical and cultural barriers while. on the other hand. it fostered commercialisation of Indian agriculture which adversely affected the self-sufficiency of the village economies in India. The volume of India’s exports undoubtedly expanded, but its benefits rarely accrued to the Indians. The social benefits. which the Indians gained owing to the introduction of the railways, were thus outweighed by the country’s huge economic loss. 
Along with the development of roads and railways, the colonial dispensation also took measures for developing the inland trade and sea lanes. However, these measures were far from satisfactory. The inland waterways. at times. also proved uneconomical as in the case of the canal on the Odisha coast. Though the canal was built at a huge cost to the government exchequer. yet, it failed to compete with the region running parallel to the canal. and had to be ultimately abandoned. The introduction of the expensive system of electric telegraph in India. similarly. served the purpose of maintaining law and order. The postal services, on the other hand. despite serving a useful public purpose. remained all through inadequate.
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Chola temples often became the nuclei of settlements which grew around them. These were centers of craft production. Temples were also endowed with land by rulers as well as by others. The produce of this land went into maintaining all the specialists who worked at the temple and very often lived near it - priests, garland makers. cooks, sweepers. musicians, dancers, etc. In other words. temples were not only places of worship: they were the centers of economic. social and cultural life. 
Amongst the crafts associated with temples. the making of bronze images was the most distinctive. Chola bronze images are considered amongst the finest in the world. While  most images were of deities. sometimes images were made of devotees as well.
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38 Box 5.5: Organically Produced Cotton in Maharashtra 
In 1955, when Kisan Mehta of Prakruti (an NGO) first suggested that cotton, the biggest user of chemical pesticides, could be grown organically, the then Director of the Central Institute for Cotton Research, Nagpur, famously remarked,” Do you want India to go naked?” At present, as many as 130 farmers have committed 1,200 hectares of land to grow cotton organically on the International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movement’s standards. The produce was later tested by the German Accredited Agency, AGRECO, and found to be of high quality. Kisan Mehta feels that about 78 percent of Indian farmers are marginal farmers owning at best less than 0.8 hectares but accounting for 20 percent of India’s cultivable land. For such farmers, organic agriculture is more profitable in terms of money and soil conservation in the long run.
Read the passage and answer the following questions:
Organic agriculture offers a means to substitute costlier agricultural inputs (such as HYV seeds. chemical fertilisers, pesticides etc.) with locally produced organic inputs that are cheaper and thereby generate good returns on investment. Organic agriculture also generates income through exports as the demand for organically grown crops is on a rise. Studies across countries have shown that organically grown food has more nutritional value than chemical farming thus providing us with healthy foods. Since organic farming requires more labour input than conventional farming, India will find organic farming an attractive proposition. Finally. the produce is pesticide-free and produced in an environmentally sustainable way.
Popularising organic farming requires awareness and willingness on the part of farmers to adapt to new technology. Inadequate infrastructure and the problem of marketing the products are major concerns which need to be addressed apart from an appropriate agriculture policy to promote organic farming. It has been observed that the yields from organic farming are less than modern agricultural farming in the initial years. Therefore, small and marginal farmers may find it difficult to adapt to large-scale production. Organic produce may also have more blemishes and a shorter shelf life than sprayed produce. Moreover, choice in production of off-season crops is quite limited in organic farming. Nevertheless, organic farming helps in sustainable development of agriculture and India has a clear advantage in producing organic products for both domestic and international markets. Do you think food and non-food items cultivated using organic farming methods will be cheaper?
Identify the usages of the word"PUZZLE"in the following sentence."The students got puzzled solving the puzzle".
All the great religious teachers of mankind have insisted on this that men ought not to live for themselves alone.We ought not,they have said,to spend all our time and energy in getting just what we want for ourselves,power and money and importance in the world;we ought to serve something greater than ourselves, whether a god or a cause or our fellowmen.It is by serving this something greater that men will forget themselves and so achieve happiness.This or something like it is what the great religions have taught,and it is one of the most important of the things that civilization means.It is also the hardest to learn and practise;in fact,most people have found it much too hard.
Which of the following terms is closer to the central idea of the given passage?
All the great religious teachers of mankind have insisted on this that men ought not to live for themselves alone.We ought not, they have said,to spend all our time and energy in getting just what we want for ourselves, power and money and importance in the world;we ought to serve something greater than ourselves,whether a god or a cause or our fellowmen.It is by serving this something greater that men will forget themselves and so achieve happiness.This or something like it is what the great religions have taught,and it is one of the most important of the things that civilization means.It is also the hardest to learn and practise;in fact,most people have found it much too hard.
What does the passage suggest overall?
(A) It suggests humanism as a religious practice.
(B) It holds nationalism as the most cherished sentiment in society.
(C) It holds altruism as a universal value.
(D) It holds humanism as the most important thing in human life.
(E) It puts altruism in the binary of selfishness.
Choose the correct answer from the options given below:
Given below are two statements:
Statement I "VERY" is used with adjectives, past participles used as adjectives and adverbs.
Statement II : But "VERY" is not used with past participles that have a passive meaning.
In the light of the above statements, choose the correct answer from the options given below:
Rearrange the following components to get a meaningful sentence.
(A) The Buddha
(B) of his time and
(C) dissented against the orthodoxy
(D) the eightfold path stood revealed
Choose the correct answer from the options given below :
Match List I with List II:
List IList II
(A) Alma mater(1) Reasonable value of service
(B) De Jure(II) One's own old school/college
(C) Ipso facto(III) By the fact
(D) Quantum meruit(IV) As a matter of legal right
Choose the correct answer from the options given below:
Given below are two statements: One is labelled as Assertion (A) and the other is labelled as Reason (R).
"I wish it were possible."
Assertion (A):Despite the fact that the above sentence lacks subject-verb concord, as per the English Grammar,it is a syntactically correct sentence. Reasons (R):It is a syntactically correct sentence because in subjunctive mood (of verb) even singular subject is followed by a plural verb.
In the light of the above statements, choose the correct answer from the options given below:
Rearrange the following sentences to get a meaningful paragraph.
(A)However, Indian girls have not matched this rate of access to education.
(B)Still the Indian girl child has been deprived of the gift, as largely girls are not considered worthy of literacy.
(C)The power of education in transforming communities is a gift that has changed India in the last few decades.
(D)India has seen a substantial increase in primary school enrolment due to the Right to Education (RTE) Act 2009
Choose the correct answer from the options given below:
Match List I with List II:
List IList II
(A)Fits and starts(1) At appropriate time
(B)In less than no time(II) At intervals
(C) Once in a blue moon(III) In a moment
(D) On the dot(IV) Rarely
Choose the correct answer from the options given below:
Given below are two statements:
Statement I :"HARDLY" can be used to say that something is just true or possible.Statement II: "HARDLY" is a negative word and should not be used with not or other negatives.
In the light of the above statements,choose the correct answer from the options given below:
Which of the following are synonyms of the word"DELINEATE"?
(A) Depict
(B) Decepitate
(C) Describe
(D) Depricate
Choose the correct answer from the options given below:
This particular scepticism of the reach of reasoning ____1 ____ not yield nor (as Appiah makes clear) is it intended to yield any ground for not using reason to the extent one can, in ____ 2 ____ the idea of justice or any other notion of social relevance,such as identity.Nor does it undermine the case for our trying to persuade each other to scrutinize our respective conclusions.It is also important to note that what may appear to others as clear examples of 'unreason' may not always be exactly that.Reasoned discussion can accommodate conflicting positions that may appear to others to be 'unreasoned prejudice,without this being quite the case.There is no compulsion, as is sometimes____3____to eliminate every reasoned alternative except exactly one.
In the above passage there are blanks, each of which has been numbered.Find out the appropriate option in each case to replace the given numbers.
Pick the appropriate replacement for (II)
This particular scepticism of the reach of reasoning ____1 ____ not yield nor (as Appiah makes clear) is it intended to yield any ground for not using reason to the extent one can, in ____ 2 ____ the idea of justice or any other notion of social relevance,such as identity.Nor does it undermine the case for our trying to persuade each other to scrutinize our respective conclusions.It is also important to note that what may appear to others as clear examples of 'unreason' may not always be exactly that.Reasoned discussion can accommodate conflicting positions that may appear to others to be 'unreasoned prejudice,without this being quite the case.There is no compulsion, as is sometimes____3____to eliminate every reasoned alternative except exactly one.
In the above passage there are blanks, each of which has been numbered.Find out the appropriate option in each case to replace the given numbers.
Pick the appropriate replacement for (I)